The South Africa – Viet Nam Rhino Horn Trade Nexus (PDF ... - WWF

situation at the end-use market: viet nam
THE SITUATION IN THE END-USE MARKET
VIET NAM
Dien Bien Phu
viet nam
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Slightly bigger in size than Italy, Viet Nam is a similarly-shaped long, thin country, with a 3444 km
coastline along the South China Sea (CIA, 2011). Two major fertile river deltas, the Red River in the
north and the Mekong River in the south, provide the agricultural underpinning of the country, whilst
about three-quarters of the terrain is hilly or mountainous. Nearly half of Viet Nam was forested some
60 years ago, but since then, rampant deforestation continues as a major environmental issue.
Following the American War, which resulted in U.S. military forces spraying 72 million litres of herbicides
over 16% of the country and destroying some 20 000 km 2 of natural cover, only 20% of Viet
Nam’s forest cover remained in 1995, although re-forestation efforts have reportedly boosted that figure
upwards in recent years (Ray et al., 2007). The ecologically rich tropical forest habitats of Viet Nam
have in the past included the Javan Rhinoceros Rhinoceros sondaicus and the Sumatran Rhinoceros
Dicerorhinus sumatrensis as native fauna in historical times (Foose and van Strien, 1997; IUCN, 2011).
Sadly, both species are now acknowledged as being extinct, with the last Javan Rhino believed to have
been shot in the Cat Tien National Park area in late 2010 or early 2011 (WWF, 2011).
Viet Nam’s long and evocative national history is heavily entwined with that of neighbouring China.
Some 1000 years of Chinese domination ended with a nationalistic rebellion in 938 AD, but the ensuing
centuries have seen plenty of “push and pull” in the political interactions between successive
Vietnamese governments and the ever-looming Chinese giant to the north. Throughout, and to this
day, a fiercely independent streak has prevailed and characteristically defines the national identity of
Viet Nam’s nearly 87 million people (the 13th largest nation in the world). In the process, the country
willingly absorbed many attributes of Chinese culture, including Chinese traditional medicine, whilst
charting a unique and decidedly Vietnamese historical course.
Today, a modern Socialist Republic of Viet Nam has emerged amongst the new generation of “Asian
Tigers” to become one of the region’s growth-oriented powerhouses that seem to defy global economic
trends. Although Viet Nam’s economy continues to be dominated by State-owned enterprises, which
account for about 40% of the country’s GDP, the government is pursuing an aggressive commitment to
economic liberalization and international integration (CIA, 2011). Viet Nam’s increasingly politicallyunfettered
economy has grown by more than 7% annually for an entire decade, and slightly less so over
the last two years (CIA, 2011), even if the benefits of such growth seem heavily skewed towards the south
of the country (Ray et al., 2007). Viet Nam is projected to be one of the fastest growing emerging economies
by 2025 and is expected to be within the world’s top 20 economies by 2050 (PricewaterhouseCoopers,
2011), an astonishing achievement for a country that only recently ranked among the
world’s most impoverished nations.
Hanoi
Da nang
Ho Chi minh City
A street with traditional medicine shops in Hanoi.
Wildlife, however, has paid a heavy price and steadily retreated in the face of decades of war, followed by
unprecedented human population growth, intensive economic development and the absence of a strong
conservation ethic. Most wildlife populations in Viet Nam are now greatly reduced and facing a wide
range of ongoing threats from destruction of habitats, rampant wildlife trade and consumption, pollution
and other factors. Like the country’s rhinos, many of Asia’s most iconic animal species are on the verge of
extinction in Viet Nam, for example the Asian Elephant Elephas maximus, Indochina Tiger Panthera tigris
and Siamese Crocodile Crocodylus siamensis all represent highly endangered species that probably number
fewer than 100 animals in the wild (Nguyen et al., 2007). Although one of the most important areas in
the world for biodiversity, the 2004 Red Data list identified 1056 endangered species in Viet Nam and the
country’s Red List of Medicinal Plants comprised 139 threatened medicinal plants species in 2006
(Nguyen et al., 2007). Overall, a large proportion of Viet Nam’s biodiversity hangs in the balance and the
country is on the cusp of unprecedented and irreplaceable species loss.
112 the south africa – viet nam rhino horn trade nexus TRAFFIC 113
karl ammann